Sunday, August 9, 2009

Maybe it is all just a shell game. I'm glad that the writer of the last reply to Mike (the Ivy League Idiot) has his shiny Ivy League diploma and is happy with his career at the exceedingly high level that he's playing it.

Good for him.

Too bad there's more to life than research. But, wait, that's all just a shell game, right? It's impossible for academics to be "legitimate" if they don't forgo the family life or the golf game in order to pursue that higher level of the game. Academics aren't supposed to be human-- they're supposed to live the life of the mind and exist on a high plane that mere mortals. (Those silly little creatures who can talk to one another without mentioning some high level philosophical tract or dropping the name of the newest methodological theory. How could that possibly be worth anything at all?)

I'm glad that the writer has his shiny new publication to curl up with at night.

Too bad it's probably mediocre at best, because let's face it, people-- there are only a handful of academic superstars who will ever be remembered.

Too bad it probably will be read by exactly 8.6 people.

Too bad that in 5 or 10 years some new hot shot from the Ivies will come along and disprove his theory, or will completely ignore the article, because it was never that important to begin with.

But hey--and impressive CV, that's really what life's all about, right?? And teaching?!?! Pshaw--who would want to focus on anything like that when there's the "real" work of the University to be done.

I say good for Mike -- he's anything but a loser. He's human, and he seems to be pretty happy. And I say good luck to the Ivy Leaguer -- he's going to need it. A pile of articles aren't much to curl up with at night, and they certainly don't pay any attention to you when you're pissing your pants at a nursing home.

In the Beginning...

...there was Rate Your Students. Begun in 2005, the original profane and irreverent academic water cooler bubbled mightily until 2010, the last three years under the moderation of Compound Calico. In the middle of 2010 Cal passed the mantel to Fab Sun, who started College Misery, which is putting the heat on the academy and celebrating the misery we all face.